Little Miss Sunshine
by Mew-Sahara
Summary: She was bright: always wearing yellow or orange and always cheerful. The name fit her perfectly, Taruto gave Kisshu that. And even in the very early, freezing morning, she was happy-go-lucky. Taruto learned that first hand. PXT


**I've had this idea in my head for quite a while. And I'm quite a bundle of nerves right now, and I SERIOUSLY felt the need to write it.**

**To write ****something**

**And so I decided to try and get this out into words. :D**

**My bundle of nerves come from watching the best movie ever (Howl's Moving Castle), my hands smelling like varnish, reading too many sappy HMC (the shortened version of the previously mentioned best movie ever) fanfictions, and hearing a song that totally fits the couple PuddingXTaruto.**

**By the way, everyone is… About five years older. So I think that the ages would be as follows.**

**Pudding - 15 (and a half)**

**Taruto - 16**

**Ichigo, Mint, Lettuce - 18**

**Zakuro – 20**

**Ryou- 21**

**Kish – 18**

**Pai – 21**

**Keiichiro - 26**

**Heicha – 10**

**The quadruplets (in my understanding): 13**

**xSTICKYxNOTEx, this is dedicated to you, for being the most awesome friend an authoress could have. A present for typing all that crap onto my profile page. –laughs- **

**So enjoy a story of my favorite couple ever.**

**Little Miss Sunshine**

**Written by: Mew-Sahara**

**----**

"_**Tell me what you thought about when you were gone**_

_**And so alone**_

_**The worst is over**_

_**You can have the best of me**_

_**We got older**_

_**But we're still young**_

_**We never grew out of this feeling that we won't give up."**_

**from "Best of Me" by The Starting Line **

**---**

A stirring next to Pudding startled her from her sleep. Groaning faintly and biting back a string of swearwords after a glance at her alarm clock, Pudding sat up with some strain. She turned in the darkness to see what was making the noise.

Staring silently back at her was the ten-year old Heicha. "Oi, Pudding-onee-chan, isn't it time to wake up for school, na no da?" whispered the youngest of the Fong family. She, as well as the other young members of the family, had picked up Pudding's catchphrase. Pudding, on the other hand, didn't use 'na no da!' to end her sentences as frequently as she used to.

Pudding blinked sleepily over at her clock's glowing red numbers again. 5:00 a.m. Her eyes trailed across the dark room to her calendar. A happy monkey grinned at her from the top of the calendar, and Pudding had to contain the flinch that she felt coming. The monkey was cute looking in the daytime, but when it was dark…

Letting her eyes continue their path down the calendar she squinted to make out a big circle on the calendar. It circled the current day (Saturday) and some of the days the followed, which included: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Then realization hit Pudding like a ton of bricks. She took a deep breath and began to whisper to Heicha in return.

"Heicha, what time did I put you to bed last night? What did your clock say?"

The girl cocked her head and tried to remember back the previous night. Coming to a conclusion she smiled. "My clock said 12 a.m., na no da!"

Pudding sighed. "Heicha-chan, I put you to bed at _9 p.m._ Not that late."

The monkey girl's sister continued to gaze at her, confused. Pudding continued. "Were the boys fooling with your alarm clock again?"

Realization slowly spread over the younger girl's face. "Oh…" she murmured.

'_Three hours off,'_ Pudding thought. "So your alarm clock probably says 8:00 a.m., now, right?"

Heicha nodded, looking bashful. The yellow monkey-girl smiled down at her younger sister. "And anyway, Heicha-chan, we have off of school from today until Wednesday."

The younger of the two gazed up at her. "Really, na no da?" she asked, excitedly. Pudding laughed at her reaction and nodded. Heicha jumped up and down. "Yah!" she whispered loudly.

Pudding ruffled her younger sibling's hair. "Now go back to bed, silly. Get some sleep." The brown-haired girl nodded at Pudding and swiftly made her way to the door. Once there she silently closed the door behind her.

After her younger sister was gone, Pudding let the smile that she had plastered onto her face slowly melt off. She sighed deeply and curled back into the nest of covers she had made.

It was January and very cold in Tokyo that year. Sharing DNA with a tropical monkey was not exactly helping Pudding out right about now. Despite her dislike of cold, it had gotten much better over the years. The first winter she wore at least two layers of everything. Minto was even worse then poor Pudding had been, and the curse continued in its strength for Minto. Pudding snuggled deeper into the covers. Zakuro was lucky; having grey wolf DNA meant that she was better prepared for cooler weather.

Pudding sighed and closed her eyes tightly. She wanted to go back to sleep so badly… But she had never been good at falling back asleep. Tiredly, she let her mind wander over the events of the last few years.

After the Saint Rose Crusaders had been dealt with, Tokyo Mew Mew was demoted to taking care of stray chimera anima. The group had even gone to other countries to find them. They had gone to the United States to find Bigfoot and the southern areas for the Chubracabras, to Scotland for the Loch Ness Monster, and several other places globally. In a way, they had almost become myth busters. Pudding giggled slightly at the thought.

Besides taking care of UMAs, they took care of burglaries and some pettier crimes. All in all, Tokyo Mew Mew was still active and as Ichigo said, "on the prowl". Ryou had scoffed at her phrase, though Pudding thought it grew on the group. Five years wasn't bad to all of them.

Despite what Ryou had said about their powers fading when their job was over, Pudding hoped that her power never went away. As she became older, she began to grasp how lucky she was. Feeling the power that rushed over her before she attacked and when she transformed was amazing. Exhilarating. It made her feel powerful.

How many other fifteen year olds could do that?

Pudding blinked a few times and moaned softly. There was no way she was going to fall asleep now. The boys were going to get a serious beat-down from her later. Pulling herself unhappily away from her warm sanctuary, Pudding grabbed some warm clothes to change into. '_I'll go for a walk_,' she decided. After changing into her street clothes, she tried to make her way to the door. She reached for the handle, but tripped on her own feet and her hand hit the wall with a loud 'thunk!' '_Right after I wash my face and get some caffeine,'_ she decided.

---

Fifteen minutes and a half-cup of coffee later, Pudding slid quietly out the front door. It was just past 5:55, so the street was virtually empty. The monkey-girl strained her ears, but all she heard was early morning traffic and a jet. No birds.

Her boots crunched on the snow beneath them as she made her way down the street. They had gotten quite a bit of snow recently, causing traffic problems for a lot of people. The amounts of salt the authorities had poured onto roads and sidewalks were amazing.

The blonde continued walking, and she made her way in the direction of the café. Business had been good there; the amount of customers had almost doubled in the five-year span. Ryou had been convinced (and by Ichigo and some assistance he was blackmailed with some "revealing pictures") into giving each of them a raise.

Though in Pudding opinion that all paled in comparison to one event.

Pudding cocked her head at the bench next to her as she walked. Smiling slightly she remembered being able to cartwheel on and almost completely jump over a bench that size. She had kept up with her performances, but sadly customers were scare in the winter. Her tricks had become more and more amazing with the years, so the tips she was getting also increased. There had been enough money with the combined tips and raise from Ryou to add a room for Heicha onto the Fong house. There was even an extra guest room.

Sighing happily at the bench, she slowed her pace. She stopped next to the weatherworn bench and closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath she raised her hands over her head.

"The amazing Pudding Fong shall now attempt three cartwheels and a backflip!" she announced into the cold air. There was no answer. She laughed and wiped her hands on her coat. "Here goes nothing," she murmured. Inhaling deeply she flung her weight down at the freezing sidewalk.

Her hands hit the sidewalk hard, and Pudding felt some snow and salt get on them. She pulled her weight up sharply; then down again. Cartwheel one down. Three to go. Again, her hands smacked the pavement, and then up she went. Number two down. Then number three.

On the fourth time down, Pudding realized something wasn't right. The pavement was slippery under her palms. She let out a cry as her arm slipped. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, bracing herself for the impact and the pain.

Instead, she felt a pair of strong hands grab her legs and hold her up right. "Pudding, put your hands on the ground," the voice commanded. She opened her eyes and did as she was told.

"I'm going to let go of you now," the voice warned, and carefully let go of Pudding's legs. The athletic Chinese-Japanese girl flipped her legs over so she was standing again. She grinned happily as she looked at the event that had caused the past few years to be so great.

"Taruto-kun!"

---

The brunette looked at her, an annoyed face already on his face. "What?"

"Thank you, Taru-Taru! You saved me, na no da!" She was so happy to see him that her old catchphrase rolled off her tongue. Just like the old times.

The alien scoffed and blushed slightly at his nickname. "Whatever. It was no big deal. But you," he growled, turning sharply to the girl, "need to watch what you're doing. That was the stupidest thing to do when there's all this ice everywhere."

"It was fun!" she stated happily, ignoring his scolding. The monkey-girl wiped her hands messily on her pants before looking up. "What are you doing out so early, Taru-kun?"

"I'm walking, monkey-girl. You?"

"Same! Heicha woke me up and I couldn't go back to sleep. So I decided to go on a walk."

Taruto just grunted.

Pudding smiled at one his favorite responses. She couldn't help but almost giggle at his expression. His cheeks were bathed in a light flush from the coldness, and his brownish-red hair was ruffled. He, as well as Pudding, had changed since when they had both been fighting for the Earth.

It had been about two years ago when aliens had suddenly showed up back on Earth. The girls had been working in the café during the summer break when the door to the café door had opened and the three aliens had walked in. Beside their brightly colored hair, the rest of the customers basically ignored them because their appearances weren't all that odd. Despite wearing their normal alien attire, Pai had come up with a pill that caused each of the alien's to have human-sized ears. Ichigo had come over to the group half expecting a group of girls and had let out an ear-splitting shriek and dropped the menus she had been holding.

Even louder was the scream she released when Kisshu had wrapped himself around her happily while cooing, "Hello, kitten! How've you been?"

Next came Lettuce to see what the problem was, and soon after she saw the trio, she promptly fainted. Chaos followed involving the evacuation of disgruntled customers, a fire extinguisher being used to hit Kisshu, a chair being thrown at Kisshu, an amused Pai, a bucket of water to get Lettuce up, a very annoyed and wet Ryou after a missed water throw, and Taruto being strangled by an ecstatic Pudding.

After everyone had calmed down and been settled, the discussion of what had happened took place. Pai, Kisshu, and Taruto had been sent back to Earth the help view over the redevelopment of a better Earth. The Mew Aqua had worked magnificently on their home planet, and the prime minister had sent the three back to watch over as a sort of thank-you gift. Pai had concocted the pill to shrink their ears for a week at a time, they had brought back a spaceship that transformed to look something like a car, and Pai had even set up an apartment room for the aliens to live while they stayed in Tokyo.

Pudding was even more surprised at Taruto's change in appearance then the fact that they were staying. He had changed his hairstyle from being two pigtails the top of his head (he had declared it "not manly enough") to a small, messy ponytail in the back of his head. His outfit had also changed. It was more so similar to Kisshu's with the shirt, but he had kept his own pants type. The most amazing thing had to have been his change in height. He had grown even more since the two years ago to the current moment, but then he was about two centimeters taller than her. At the current moment, he was about 3 centimeters taller, because she had grown as well.

But now, his hair was even messier with the cold wind whipping through it. He raised an eyebrow at her as she studied him. "What is it, monkey-girl?" he asked.

"I'll race you to the park near here, na no da!" she chirped, bending her knees in an invitation to dash.

He blinked at her statement, but she was off before he could even conjure up a response. "H-hey!" he called loudly, starting to dash after her. She just laughed as she raced faster.

Even though she was running as fast as her legs could carry her, he was readily catching up. Letting out a laugh of happiness, she tensed her legs and plowed forward even more hastily. Taruto let out a couple of swear words and tried to quicken his pace.

She turned to run backwards to determine where he was at behind her. Giggling excitedly, the blonde came to the conclusion that she was comfortably ahead and would win at this pace. Her heel dug into the slush on the sidewalk as she turned towards the park again and continued.

Taruto grit his teeth as he saw her position. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the area in front of him and grinned as he felt the air snap around him. When he opened his eyes again, he was next to Pudding, who stared at him in shock. "Cheater!" she cried.

"It's payback for your head start!" he yelled back and pushed ahead. Two minutes later he slowed, gasping at the children's' play section of the park. Following a few seconds later, Pudding screeched to a halt, spitting out noises of annoyance at him. Taruto just grinned at her smugly.

"Taru-kun is a cheater!" she rasped out, sucking in air desperately.

"Payback," was the only word the alien responded with, before making his way over onto the snow-covered mulch of the playground.

"Hmph," she pouted. Quickly her attitude changed, however, and she skipped onto the mulch as well. She let out a happy squeal as she saw the playground equipment, despite the fact that it was covered in snow. "Swings, na no da!" In her excitement, the catchphrase slipped out into the cold air. She sprinted towards the swings and hopped onto one that wasn't covered in snow. Immediately, she began to pump her legs hard, gaining altitude as she did so.

"Come join me, Taru-kun!" she cried, her voice sliding with her as she moved back and forth.

He watched her for a minute or so before turning down her offer. "I don't need a dumb swing to fly, monkey-girl," he reminded her, and with an easy push of the leg, he was floating several meters off the ground towards Pudding.

"The swing is not dumb, Taru-kun!" she protested, but smiled as he levitated in the frigid air. She continued to swing, pumping her legs harder, so she would be going higher than Taruto. Within no time, she was swinging as high as the swing set would allow. Taruto lazily floated higher, again, and Pudding stuck out her tongue at him. Suddenly, she grinned broadly.

"Well, I don't need a swing to be higher than you either!" the blonde declared, and as the swing reached the peak of its height, she jumped. Before she fell very far, she grabbed onto the metal bars that made up the frame of the swing set, and clambered up to balance on the top supporting bar. "Hah!" she cried, triumphantly as she could.

Taruto shrugged and floated even higher still. "Whatever," he said, smirking. Pudding let out a groan of annoyance.

"I bet you can't do cool tricks, though!" The yellow Mew did a careful cartwheel on the bar. Taruto just laughed and floated around the swing set. Pudding did a backwards cartwheel and let out a scream as she felt something heavy hit her jacket. Taruto tossed a snowball up and down in his hand tauntingly, grinned an unholy grin. "Taruto-kun!' she shrieked, using his full name for emphasis. He laughed loudly, and chucked the ball of snow in his had at her. She dodged the snowball, and waved her fist at him. "Hah!"

Any normal Tokyo native would have been surprised to come into the park and end up seeing a blonde girl doing cartwheels and dodging snowballs from the top of a swing set, while a floating boy chucked the balls of snow at her. Even though Tokyo had seen some weird things since the Mew Mews had first arrived, it wasn't everyday you saw a floating boy throwing snow missiles at an athletic blonde girl. But no one was wondering by the park in the early morning hours, so for now, no one else had ever seen a sight like the one in the playground.

The alien floated close to his former enemy and lightly chucked some snow at the girl. Pudding began to move to dodge the snow, but Taruto was too close to give her much reaction time. Stumbling on her own feet, she fell forward, letting out a shriek and grabbing at anything near her.

With a loud, 'thump!' the girl hit the ground. Taking a few seconds to recover she groaned. Moving slightly in her discomfort, she found that the ground beneath her was very soft. 'And warm,' she realized. Sitting up to get a better look at the earth under her, she gasped as a very disgruntled brunette stared back up at her. "Ow," he commented, but she could barely hear him, because she had knocked the air out of the poor alien as she fell on him.

"Taru-kun!" the martial arts master squeaked. She blushed, and suddenly figured out that she was straddling his waist. "Sorry, sorry!" she gasped, almost tripping over herself in her hurry to get off of him. "Are you ok? I'm so sorry! I probably broke your back! And then you'll become a paraplegic! And then who am I going to beat at rope climbing in gym? Ahh! I'm so sorry!"

"Pudding…"

"How am I going to get you to a hospital? I can't teleport, and I certainly can't carry you… You'll probably get an infection, and then you'll die! TARU-KUN'S GOING TO DIE!" she wailed loudly.

"PUDDING!" the alien-turned-'human' yelled, cutting her off before she could continue her ranting. Once she stopped speaking, he muttered stubbornly, "I'm fine…"

Pudding blinked several times and stared at the lightly blushing boy in front of her. As his words sunk in, she became animated again. "That's great!" she crowed, throwing herself at him. She easily wrapped her arms around his neck. "Taru-taru's okay! And Taru-kun saved me!" Taruto blushed an even deeper shade of red, but luckily Pudding was too busy squeezing him and shaking him back and forth to notice.

"I'll thank you by giving you something special!"

Taruto mumbled something about it better not be a free "Pudding-will-teach-you-a-gymnastics-move!" coupon like last time, but the ecstatic girl continued. "Thank you, Taru-kun!" she chirped. And the next thing Taruto knew, he was thrust back as Pudding pushed her lips firmly onto his.

The red flush on the alien's face would have put any fire engine to shame.

---

Pudding pulled back after what seemed like an eternity to Taruto. But secretly, deep down in his little alien heart, he enjoyed it as he had enjoyed nothing before.

But, heck, he wasn't going to go and admit that!

Pudding grinned, and Taruto thought he could detect a blush on _her_ face. "Thank you for saving me, Taru-kun!"

Taruto blinked once, before composing himself as any other normal teenager would do. "No biggie," he murmured, not quite focusing on what was around him.

An awkward silence filled the freezing air, and the two stared at anything but each other. Taruto squinted into the rising sun, and Pudding seemed entirely infatuated with a tree with a squirrel hopping through the branches. To break the silence, Pudding lunged forward and pulled at Taruto's arm. "Let's go, let's go," she urged.

"Where?" Taruto asked, surprised, and let himself to be yanked into a standing position.

"Anywhere!" She skipped in front of him. "Follow me! We'll play follow-the-leader!"

'Same old Pudding,' the boy thought, putting his arms behind his head in a gesture he had picked up from Kisshu.

Pudding walked with a spring in her step down the sidewalk until they were out of the park. She shot a sharp glance back at Taruto and grinned. The monkey-girl swerved sharply to the right and Taruto raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner, but followed. He didn't need his enhanced alien hearing to hear the giggle she released as he trailed behind her like a puppy. She turned again, this time to the right, and he moved right with her.

Next, the leader slowed her pace to a very, very slow walk and as Taruto adjusted, sprinted ahead. The brunette boy hurried to follow. In a very typical Pudding manner, she threw in two cartwheels. Taruto muttered loudly enough for her to hear "Didn't learn your lesson the first time, eh?" but copied her movements again. As he pulled up, he noticed that she had dodged across the street and joined up with the slow trickle of early morning traffic. Swearing under his breath, he jogged after her. This routine continued for another five minutes before Taruto noticed that they were a block away from the apartment he shared with Pai and Kisshu.

Pudding seemed to have noticed his realization, and turned at the next corner towards the apartment. She darted ahead yet again, and jumped onto a lamppost and swung in circles a few times before jumping off, narrowly avoiding a little old man with a cane. Following suit, Taruto made sure to avoid the poor old soul. The old man had gotten enough of a scare with Pudding leaping next to him suddenly.

Slowing down, and finally halting the blonde teen waited for Taruto to catch up. She smiled happily as he stopped next to her. She took in a deep breath and opened her mouth wide and shouted, "GOOD MORNING, TOKYO!"

Taruto stared at her with horror evident on his face. "What are you doing?" he hissed.

"It's follow-the-leader, Taru-kun," the yellow-themed girl stated matter-of-factually.

He hesitated before taking a deep breath as well, "GOOD MORNING, TOKYO!" he bellowed down the street, and more people turned to look back at the two than when Pudding had yelled it out.

"Good job, Taru-kun," she congratulated him, patting him on the back. "Game over!"

The two began walking again, and they finally ended up at the front steps to the apartment building where the alien trio resided. Together, Taruto going first, they entered the building and passed by the mailboxes before hesitating at the elevator. Pudding made the decision before shouting, "Stairs!" and pushing open the door to the stairway.

"Shouldn't I get to decide?" Taruto called after the girl.

"Nope!"

He grudgingly followed her up, up, up until they reached the fifth floor. Both were gasping for air, but happily made their way to the door of the apartment. The area in front of the doors was open, so they could look out onto the city around them. Pudding leaned on the ledge and 'ooh'ed and 'aah'ed as she always did at the view. "It must be around 7 already," she guessed, glancing at all the traffic bustling around the city she could see. Taruto nodded in agreement.

Another silence filled the air, but not for nearly as long as it had been at the park. Pudding shattered the silence by saying cheerfully, "I think I'm going to go the store and by some doughnuts for the kids. I bet they'll love a treat!"

"Doughnuts?"

Pudding gave him a 'how-can-you-not-know-that?' look. "You don't know what doughnuts are, Taru-kun?"

"Not really."

The yellow-Mew gasped. "That's horrible! I'll have to buy you one soon! Maybe I'll drop one off later or something. Jeez, Taru-kun, never eating a doughnut!" She shook her head sadly at the loss of how many years Taruto had gone without doughnuts.

"Okay?" he said, leaving it to sound like a question.

"Okay," she confirmed, despite the fact that Taruto wasn't expected a reply.

She moved from the ledge, after sending one last glance over out on the city. "Thanks again, Taru-kun!" she chirped, before she swooped in and pecked him on the cheek with her lips.

Taruto flushed again, and Pudding scurried down the hall, waving back at him. "See you later, Taru-kun!" she called. A few seconds later, the door to the stairway clinked shut and she was gone.

Taruto stared at the space she had been just seconds before. 'What a day… And it's not even that late,' he thought with a sigh. But his sigh was a contented one. It had been a good day so far for him. He was startled back into reality as he saw a small orange-ish colored figure waving to him from the ground below. He waved back and watched the figure until it disappeared around the corner.

"And there she goes, little Miss Sunshine. She's cute, neh?"

Taruto jumped and swore violently before turning around and swearing directly at the person who had startled him.

"Kish, where the hell did you come from?" he spit out at his older friend.

"Why, Tart, I thought you knew! I came from my mother, of course," his friend remarked cockily, floating slightly off the ground to lean against the wall where Pudding had been leaning before.

"Of course I know that, you idiot. What I mean, _Kisshu_, is when the heck did you get out here? Were you listening to the entire thing?" Taruto put special emphasis on comrade's full name, because they usually just called each other by their nicknames.

Kisshu lazily lifted his arms behind his head in the gesture Taruto knew all too well. "I can't believe you don't know what doughnuts are, Tart. You've had a very sheltered childhood, haven't you?"

Taruto growled venomously. "I'm going to kill you, Kish!"

"You have to catch me first!" the older alien taunted and whizzed towards the apartment door.

"_KISSHU!_"

"Eek! Pai, save me!"

"What kind of stupid thing have you done now, Kish?"

"Can you believe that Tart hasn't _ever_ had doughnuts?"

A pause.

"… Seriously, Tart?"

"_BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!_"

---

**The aliens are early risers. Or something like that. And what was Taruto doing out so early? He was actually going to walk by Pudding's house, which he frequently does when he can't sleep and it is early in the morning. He ended up meeting Pudding half way. What a charmer, going by her house!**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed it! I certainly enjoyed writing it. :**

**Thank you all for reading, and please leave a comment if you liked it, didn't like it, or would like to see more of something like this.**

**Thanks again, xSTICKYxNOTEx! You're a real lifesaver. –huggles-**

**SHAMELESS PLUG CORNER: Want more Pudding and Taruto goodness? Check out my stories adapted from Raburinna's PuddingXTaruto sentence. THEY ARE UBER FLUFFY. :D**

**ANOTHER SHAMELESS PLUG: Do you want to see a story like this for another couple? Say so in a review, PM, or best of all, go to my profile page and vote! The poll won't be open much longer, so hurry, hurry, hurry.**

**God, it took so long to write this (25 pages double-spaced in Word). I couldn't ever get it down in one sitting. I'm hoping you all enjoyed it! I'm going to read it over, then post this up. I have a crazy busy Saturday tomorrow. Forensics, my dad's birthday… Lots of stuff.**

**Thank you all for reading! And have a great day/night/whatever-it-is!**


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